Star Wars The Old Republic - Shadow of Revan

Initial info about 2.2 and 2.3. Notably NiM TfB and NiM S&V, more double XP weekends, crafted underworld stuff, and a few more things. I'm kind of disappointed we won't get a new Op this summer, but realistically I'm sure the NiM ops will keep us busy. It also looks like the PvP people will have to wait until 2.4 for something big, that's going to cause a lot of angst. Overall, it's a really good thing that they have started talking about future plans instead of keeping things so close to the vest.

Interesting update, seems the pvp angst is already taking over that thread. I casually pvp when pve content gets stale and even I'd like to see some of what they've been requesting like new warzones, cross-server queueing and arena style matchups. Unless they've left out some details, having to wait almost 1 year for new pvp content is inexcusable. I read some hearsay from BW that their own metrics indicate more people do wz than ops/fps so they shouldn't need player feedback before starting to dedicate some more dev time in that direction.

I think a lot of people casually PvP sometimes, but not many people do it as a main focus of the game. You also have to take into account that PvPers will never stop complaining, there will always be something to start "unsub" threads over. Also, compared to other MMOs with PvP content, SWTOR is way ahead of where just about everyone else was/is at the one year mark. Even WoW doesn't have a lot more maps.

Arenas (2v2, 3v3, 4v4 team deathmatch) are also never going to happen in SWTOR, the classes aren't balanced for it and they said they have no interest in trying to make them that way. Even WoW looks at arenas as something they really shouldn't have put in, because they aren't fair and cause a lot of complaints. I do agree we need cross server queueing, for for the most part I don't think that would noticeably change people's experience for the better, as there aren't many servers now and they are region based to minimize lag issues. It would also be a rude awakening if the people on PvE servers had to queue against the people on PvP servers, WZs are almost like different games depending on server.

Arenas were a debacle in TBC WoW and from what I read they still are in MoP. Not to mention the negative spillover effect that pvp balancing efforts tended to have on pve balance which Blizzard managed to somewhat mitigate in Lich King. Maybe SWTOR can do better since they alluded to at least the possibility of arena style play though it could just be idle musing on their part.http://www.swtor.com/community/showthre ... 617&page=7

2.2 Notes, looks like they are putting it on the PTS. Not much other than the NiM stuff and a new guild XP boost based on guild size. I'm a little surprised that's all they've got planned for it, they really should have held off on 2.1 and just put them both together if that's the best they can come up with.

Dataminer of the 2.2 PTS found some interesting stuff. Rakghoul event, secret boss in Scum and Villiany, some sort of raid on Tython/Korriban, hopefully you get to kill those fucking cultist twi'leks on Tython, more macrobinocular stuff.

I do not run OPs, as I am playing on a European Server while staying in China and the time difference makes raiding impossible for me (Raids tend to start in the evening which would be past midnight for me).

A healer or tank should be able to get a SM Ops queue pop just about any time of day. While there are fluctuations, MMOs don't exactly ever wind all the way down. You can also probably pretty easily fill a hole in a guild raid for the harder Ops by just watching for the LFMs on fleet.

Yes, probably. But I only do Toborro's Courtyard this way. It's no fun for me to do a whole raid with a group I don't know. Most of the fun in raiding (imho of course) comes from the teamwork, discussing on TS and a nice relaxed atmosphere during these 2-3 hours.While patching in in a guild raid will most likely result in a successful raid (I did this before), it is not very funny to run with a group of strangers that know each other but do not know you, so you get the "5th wheel on the car" feeling.Running with a complete random raid can have ... mixed ... results

So mostly no raids for me

Anyway, I am still musing to try some PvP as a change of pace, let's see if I get over it. As a complete beginner without any PvP gear yet I will probably be facerolled, not sure if I'm in for that particular experience

As for the new patch, more double XP weekends sound fun. I have on last advanced class that I would like to level (a Vanguard) and with a double XP weekend I would definitely do so. Is there any confirmation on this?

I am actually curious if they will ever allow AC changes. They have said before that they will never do it, but as far as I can tell, there doesn't appear to be a technical reason not to allow it. The story is based on gender and class - the two things you obviously can't change. Is there a technical reason that anyone knows of as to why they couldn't do it?

I know they have claimed they won't do it, but just about everything goes on sale on the market eventually... I would pay some serious cash to switch one toons AC so that I could play that one with the gf. I know I would need new armorings on that toon, but eh', it would be worth it for me. Plus, they could charge an outrageous amount. 1k cartel coins, maybe 2k. I bet they could make a pretty penny on those.

Or even make it like respecing - 1st free, 2nd 1k, 3rd 2k, etc or some other graded system of increasing AC changes so that people don't do it all the time.

I am aware of the counter arguments - the armor/stat issue, not knowing how to play your new AC since you switched it at 55, etc. But yeah, I wouldn't mind if this made it into the game.

I am actually curious if they will ever allow AC changes. They have said before that they will never do it, but as far as I can tell, there doesn't appear to be a technical reason not to allow it. The story is based on gender and class - the two things you obviously can't change. Is there a technical reason that anyone knows of as to why they couldn't do it?

The have had issues with removing/adding abilities before. There are also quest rewards, etc, which do differ. Practically, it will never happen because AC = Class in any other MMO. They kind of fumbled by delaying the decision until level 10, but your AC is your class, and the fact that the story is the same doesn't mean changing it is any more likely (the story is the same for everyone in other MMOs, and I still can't think of one that allows class changes).

Even assuming there aren't any big technical roadblocks, it would still require a lot of UI and testing work that they desperately need on other stuff.

I am actually curious if they will ever allow AC changes. They have said before that they will never do it, but as far as I can tell, there doesn't appear to be a technical reason not to allow it. The story is based on gender and class - the two things you obviously can't change. Is there a technical reason that anyone knows of as to why they couldn't do it?

The have had issues with removing/adding abilities before. There are also quest rewards, etc, which do differ. Practically, it will never happen because AC = Class in any other MMO. They kind of fumbled by delaying the decision until level 10, but your AC is your class, and the fact that the story is the same doesn't mean changing it is any more likely (the story is the same for everyone in other MMOs, and I still can't think of one that allows class changes).

Even assuming there aren't any big technical roadblocks, it would still require a lot of UI and testing work that they desperately need on other stuff.

I did forget about the quest rewards. I suppose they would just have to write some kind of catch that switches between the rewards given the current class.

I was just thinking in terms of a money maker. I actually think what they have made cc only has been awesome thus far - there is absolutely no amount of pay to win in this game. It's all just cosmetic and convenience, and I really like that. But re-leveling can be such a drag when you have done all the class stories and all the planet stories 4x+ on each side. Plus they could charge a huge amount of money and there wouldn't be a huge amount of complaining because they would be one of the only to ever allow it. When your guild loses a tank and you have a couple guys who would switch AC's to tank but have to re-level... I know my experience is anecdotal, but most of the raiders I know generally dislike the leveling experience (of any mmo, swtor is one of the best in that respect).

They may have some technical issues, and I wouldn't expect them to do it anytime soon given that they are really still working on infrastructure and content rather than just content, but I would love to see it. It's too bad it won't happen.

I am not sure the quest rewards would prevent an AC change. If a player chooses to do so, a simple warning like "changing your AC will make some of your quest reward items unaccessible" should be enough. I do not see anything game breaking in that as opposed to a gender change which would break e.g. romances completely.

So I wouldn't be opposed to the option to have AC change, especially the example of guild missing tanks and/or healers show that there may be good reasons to do so.On the other hand with the upcoming double XP weekends I will level up the last AC that I'm interested in, so overall this might be the better solution anyway. With double XP + the 25% xp boost you can get from certain quest rewards (not even necessary to buy from CM) levelling from 1 - 50 was a breeze last time, I really enjoyed that I could skip entire planets I don't like too much and just doing class story there (I'm looking at you, Balmorra).

Quick question as someone who has never played this game before....is this completely F2P? Meaning can I get the experience most everyone gets without subbing/spending money?

Yes. You can level from 1-50 without paying anything, completing all the quests. You will gain XP slower, there are credit(gold) limits, some cosmetic options are locked, and you can only do a limited about of FPs(dungeons) and Warzones (PvP battlegrounds) a week. It's also not really practical to do endgame stuff without a subscription, but for someone new you probably won't even notice most of the restrictions.

Quick question as someone who has never played this game before....is this completely F2P? Meaning can I get the experience most everyone gets without subbing/spending money?

You can play all of the single-player story content up to level 50 / Corellia without spending a penny. You won't be able to equip any purple-quality loot that you find, but you can get by easily without it.

The multi-player flashpoints and operations require payments to buy passes.

So I finally got around to finishing the seeker droid and macrobinocular quests. The seeker droid was fine (if a bit dicey because the healer I ended up grouping with was a complete idiot), but the macrobinocular quest, Jesus Christ. Again, the problem was mostly that two of my group were morons, but still -- the last mission required more coordination than your typical flashpoint, much less a normal heroic. It took us like two hours to finish, because half of my party couldn't understand concepts like "stand here and hit the button when I tell you" or "hit the console when the boss's shields are up to bring them down".

I was actually pretty okay with it, though, because the quest had built the Shroud up into some sort of ridiculous superbadass, so beating him felt like a big deal... until the the quest turn-in cutscene robs you of all sense of accomplishment. Bah, and bah again, I say.

The macrobinoculars finale falls and stands with the group you're doing it with.The first time I did it with my BH and frankly my group sucked. It took us 3 hours to do the last H4. After 1h our healer left, so I field-respecced and healed (for the first time) and naturally I assumed I was the weak link being a first time healer. The fight with the turrets cost me around 100k in repairs and then another 50k with the Shroud ... but at least the others were as dedicated as I and we did see it through. I did it again with my Sorc a couple of days later also just starting to heal (I decided to generally give healing a try in this game). I was in a group for a 50s heroic which was my first time healing on that toon. It did go well so we did another one and finally did LI, that's when one of the guys asked if we would like to help him finish the macrobinoculars. I warned them that this might take a while and all committed. 1h later we finished :-)It is just such a big difference if a tank knows how to tank and DPS are playing clever, we breezed through the fights and I had no problem keeping the whole group up even as a rookie healer.As I was just helping out that time without having the quest at that stage I will need to do it again but as it is getting more and more difficult to find groups for it this may take a while.

So, Ive been playing this a lot more recently and had a question about the cartel packs.

A couple of them have items in them that I want to acquire for my character. I know I can get most (if not all) of them off the GTN for credits, but I was wondering how rare the "Super Rare" items actually were.

(If youre curious of the items, I'm looking to get the Tac-HUD Heavy Sniper Rifle and the Spymaster armor), (I also understand that the packs that contain these items are going to be removed from the Cartel market on the 11th.)

If they are incredibly rare, what are some good ways to make lots of credits (for a f2p player)

A couple of them have items in them that I want to acquire for my character. I know I can get most (if not all) of them off the GTN for credits, but I was wondering how rare the "Super Rare" items actually were.

Pretty rare. Getting a "super rare" seems to be somewhere around 5% or so, but getting the specific super rare you want is going to be a lot less than that.

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If they are incredibly rare, what are some good ways to make lots of credits (for a f2p player)

Most of the super rare items are pretty expensive on the GTN, 600k-1.5m+, sometimes a lot more plus. If you want to put real money into it buying CM items and selling them on the GTN is the easiest way to make credits, although we are in a lull right now since it's been a while since the last new pack and they are all on sale, so I imagine the market is flooded. If you want to get credits in game, the quickest way is to just play and do dailies. Playing the market has a lot of profit in it (lots of price fluctuation with the items from the boxes), but it requires patience, lots of browsing, and probably some spreadsheets. Depending on your server you might be able to turn a profit making/selling some stuff like stims and augments, but those often sink to the level of not much profit per time spent.

A couple of them have items in them that I want to acquire for my character. I know I can get most (if not all) of them off the GTN for credits, but I was wondering how rare the "Super Rare" items actually were.

Pretty rare. Getting a "super rare" seems to be somewhere around 5% or so, but getting the specific super rare you want is going to be a lot less than that.

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If they are incredibly rare, what are some good ways to make lots of credits (for a f2p player)

Most of the super rare items are pretty expensive on the GTN, 600k-1.5m+, sometimes a lot more plus. If you want to put real money into it buying CM items and selling them on the GTN is the easiest way to make credits, although we are in a lull right now since it's been a while since the last new pack and they are all on sale, so I imagine the market is flooded. If you want to get credits in game, the quickest way is to just play and do dailies. Playing the market has a lot of profit in it (lots of price fluctuation with the items from the boxes), but it requires patience, lots of browsing, and probably some spreadsheets. Depending on your server you might be able to turn a profit making/selling some stuff like stims and augments, but those often sink to the level of not much profit per time spent.

Thanks. I'll have to see what I'm going to do... the gun in question was on the GTN for around 110k last night so I wouldnt need much.

I don't know what level you are, but once you hit 50 there are a set of daily missions which, as you may have guessed, reset once a day (at 7 a.m. EST - although I don't know if this is the same on all servers). They tend to be pretty easy and quick and yield a decent number of credits as well as various commendations for gear. There are sets of dailies in the Black Hole (Corellia), Ilum, Belsavis, Section X, and Makeb as well as GSI dailies on multiple planets.

I think most people agree that best credit vs time spent dailies are on Ilum and Black Hole. Once you get used to them, they can be done in about 45 min-1 hr (combined) and yield around 130-150k credits.

There is more specific information on the website dulfy.net

--edit to add--If you are not 50 yet, farming heroics and running a couple flashpoints is probably the quickest way to grind credits reliably. If you go to a heroic which is low enough level for you to not take much damage, you can do them very quickly.

I believe the 55 stuff on makeb will get you more credits once you count drops (grey vendor trash is worth a lot on makeb compared to earlier in the game). The plain dailies on makeb are pretty spread out, so it's best to do some of them along with the GSI dailies and staged weekly.

Honestly, below 50 I wouldn't even worry about farming credits. If you need more, then questing to level is the fastest way, and generally the high level you are the more credits you get for everything.

At lvl 23 you will be pretty much credit starved as buying all the skill upgrades will consume a considerate amount of your cash. You will also want to get the speeder asap. You should see your money inflow increasing around lvl 40. I tended to have around ~500k when I reached lvl50, but I think they may have changed the cost of skills and the money earned during levelling as a recent levelled alt only stood at around ~200k @50 but again at around 500k @55.

If you are after a specific item that is super rare do not buy the packs. This will only end in frustration. The chances to get that specific item are very, very slim and you would probably have to spend a couple of hundred bucks to get it. Buy packs only if there is a broader variety of things in them that would appeal to you and if you can also use all the "fluff" that comes with them (the emotes, the companion gifts, the crafting mats, the XP boosts and so on). If all of the fluff and all the common armor is meaningless to you don't buy. A full crate (24 packs) will give you approx. 1 super rare item and one cargo bay full of belts and bracers of armor sets you don't like as well as 5 times the "confused" emote and 15 Javagramms ...

E: on money makingAs has been said after you hit fifty there will be a lot of repeatable quests available which are the best way to earn money. It is worth to mention that not only these quests reset daily, so do also all H4 and H2 quests of any level. That is before level 50 you can do all heroic quests again and again to grind credits and planetary commendations.

At lvl 23 you will be pretty much credit starved as buying all the skill upgrades will consume a considerate amount of your cash. You will also want to get the speeder asap. You should see your money inflow increasing around lvl 40. I tended to have around ~500k when I reached lvl50, but I think they may have changed the cost of skills and the money earned during levelling as a recent levelled alt only stood at around ~200k @50 but again at around 500k @55.

If you are after a specific item that is super rare do not buy the packs. This will only end in frustration. The chances to get that specific item are very, very slim and you would probably have to spend a couple of hundred bucks to get it. Buy packs only if there is a broader variety of things in them that would appeal to you and if you can also use all the "fluff" that comes with them (the emotes, the companion gifts, the crafting mats, the XP boosts and so on). If all of the fluff and all the common armor is meaningless to you don't buy. A full crate (24 packs) will give you approx. 1 super rare item and one cargo bay full of belts and bracers of armor sets you don't like as well as 5 times the "confused" emote and 15 Javagramms ...

E: on money makingAs has been said after you hit fifty there will be a lot of repeatable quests available which are the best way to earn money. It is worth to mention that not only these quests reset daily, so do also all H4 and H2 quests of any level. That is before level 50 you can do all heroic quests again and again to grind credits and planetary commendations.

Like I said, I'm looking to get the Tac-HUD Heavy Sniper Rifle (from the Blockade Runner pack)so I either need to buy the packs and hope, or raise 100k+ creds to get it off the GTN. So I'm willing to let skills and what not fall by the wayside until I can do that.

At lvl 23 you will be pretty much credit starved as buying all the skill upgrades will consume a considerate amount of your cash. You will also want to get the speeder asap. You should see your money inflow increasing around lvl 40. I tended to have around ~500k when I reached lvl50, but I think they may have changed the cost of skills and the money earned during levelling as a recent levelled alt only stood at around ~200k @50 but again at around 500k @55.

If you are after a specific item that is super rare do not buy the packs. This will only end in frustration. The chances to get that specific item are very, very slim and you would probably have to spend a couple of hundred bucks to get it. Buy packs only if there is a broader variety of things in them that would appeal to you and if you can also use all the "fluff" that comes with them (the emotes, the companion gifts, the crafting mats, the XP boosts and so on). If all of the fluff and all the common armor is meaningless to you don't buy. A full crate (24 packs) will give you approx. 1 super rare item and one cargo bay full of belts and bracers of armor sets you don't like as well as 5 times the "confused" emote and 15 Javagramms ...

E: on money makingAs has been said after you hit fifty there will be a lot of repeatable quests available which are the best way to earn money. It is worth to mention that not only these quests reset daily, so do also all H4 and H2 quests of any level. That is before level 50 you can do all heroic quests again and again to grind credits and planetary commendations.

Like I said, I'm looking to get the Tac-HUD Heavy Sniper Rifle (from the Blockade Runner pack)so I either need to buy the packs and hope, or raise 100k+ creds to get it off the GTN. So I'm willing to let skills and what not fall by the wayside until I can do that.

You'll accumulate around 750k to 1million credits from quest rewards and selling to vendors the random grey/green junk items on the way from levels 1-50. Minus any expenses like buying an unlock or small upgrade here and there. You may also want to level a crew skill like Scavenging while you level. At max level (450), they can provide a respectable, steady stream of income.

At lvl 23 you will be pretty much credit starved as buying all the skill upgrades will consume a considerate amount of your cash. You will also want to get the speeder asap. You should see your money inflow increasing around lvl 40. I tended to have around ~500k when I reached lvl50, but I think they may have changed the cost of skills and the money earned during levelling as a recent levelled alt only stood at around ~200k @50 but again at around 500k @55.

If you are after a specific item that is super rare do not buy the packs. This will only end in frustration. The chances to get that specific item are very, very slim and you would probably have to spend a couple of hundred bucks to get it. Buy packs only if there is a broader variety of things in them that would appeal to you and if you can also use all the "fluff" that comes with them (the emotes, the companion gifts, the crafting mats, the XP boosts and so on). If all of the fluff and all the common armor is meaningless to you don't buy. A full crate (24 packs) will give you approx. 1 super rare item and one cargo bay full of belts and bracers of armor sets you don't like as well as 5 times the "confused" emote and 15 Javagramms ...

E: on money makingAs has been said after you hit fifty there will be a lot of repeatable quests available which are the best way to earn money. It is worth to mention that not only these quests reset daily, so do also all H4 and H2 quests of any level. That is before level 50 you can do all heroic quests again and again to grind credits and planetary commendations.

Like I said, I'm looking to get the Tac-HUD Heavy Sniper Rifle (from the Blockade Runner pack)so I either need to buy the packs and hope, or raise 100k+ creds to get it off the GTN. So I'm willing to let skills and what not fall by the wayside until I can do that.

What server are you on? If you are on Shadowlands, I might be willing to buy the item(s) you are looking for (I remember you stating something else earlier) and you can pay me back at some point in the future. I really don't play all that often so don't have much need for the money I have saved up at the moment.

What server are you on? If you are on Shadowlands, I might be willing to buy the item(s) you are looking for (I remember you stating something else earlier) and you can pay me back at some point in the future. I really don't play all that often so don't have much need for the money I have saved up at the moment.

Id love to take you up on that offer but I'm on Harbinger. Thanks though.

Well, as I said with lvl23 100k is quite a high hanging fruit, and I think your best bet is to try to lvl as quick as possible by doing as many quests as possible. The credits you get from missions is quite good. With higher lvls the rewards will go up quickly. Take a look at your build and find out which skills you use and which are useless for you, only spend money on your core skills.

I guess you could have the 100k by lvl 30, which should take you around 8h to reach from lvl23. I honestly do not think there is a decent way to farm credits at lower levels and just levelling would be your best bet.

As crew skills you should run Scavenging, Archeologie and Slicing. Some of the mid tier materials for Scavenging (e.g. Polyplast) and Archeologie do bring surprisingly good prices on the GTN (check it out first, things may be different on your server). Slicing will let you open "chests" throughout the world that contain some credits. Later on Slicing mission will grant the materials to make Augments which is a very good money maker on lvl 55.You probably do not need to go out of your way to collect materials, just make sure your skill is at a high enough level for the area you are in and you should be enable to collect enough to make some coin just along the road doing missions. Instead of Archeologie you could also try Treasure Hunting and run the crew missions to obtain crystals, they also go for good money on my server for tiers 2 - 5.Note that crafting materials at lvl 1 are worthless because the can be obtained easily, as well as crafting materials at lvl 6 being worthless because almost everybody spent a year or more at lvl50 gathering plenty of it. The mid lvl stuff is good for alts and people are being lazy and willing to spend good money to outfit their toons for the quickest levelling experience possible. Lvl 9 materials are in good demand currently and bring good prices (there are far less nodes then for lvl 6), but I think as people will gather their end game gear also demand will fade.

Also mid tier armorings/mods/enhancements are going very well on the GTN. With Cybertech you can make armorings/mods and sell them. People will pay surprisingly high prices to equip their alts. With the new planetery commendation system this source of income has dwindled, but as armorings are still 7 comms (with mods and enhancements only costing 2) this is still a good money maker. You will need to be able to offer blue armorings in the level range of 30 - 45. Below 30 most people do not bother because equip is outlevelled too quickly and above 45 everybody is already looking at the 50s gear (which does not come from crafting mostly), but in between armorings sell like hot cake (on my server).This will require a certain investment in schematics and reverse engineering and is probably not your best bet for your first toon.

Beside that, as you mentioned being F2P you might want to look into some upgrades. I recommend into looking to get "preferred status" this should get you access to 3 crew skill slots, some cosmetic things as "hide head slot" and most importantly a higher free cash allotment.

E: it seems that preferred status will not grant you a higher credit limit, but it will give you 4 quickbars instead of just 2 which is also something essential imho.

I'd think the game would be damn near unplayable after level 25 if you only have 2 quickbars.

Naa. It depends on class, but you can easily get away with using a small subset of your abilities while leveling. You can't even think about starting to use a "correct" rotation until the 40s, and there won't even really be opportunities to use most utility abilities unless you are looking for them. There's a lot of stuff that's nice to have on more bars (I pretty much fill up all 6 at 55), but two won't really cripple you until endgame stuff, and only then if you are serious about it.

On the issue of quickbars - I have the feeling that having 6 bars actually is detrimental to some of the weaker players. They try to put every ability on there when in reality your priority list is probably between 5-8 abilities, and using anything but those abilities in most scenarios is a bad idea. Sure, you then add in aoe, defensive cooldowns, stuns/stun breaks, etc and you will fill up 2 rows. But having those extra/weaker attack abilities near your priority list actually encourages bad play in a lot of cases. You see people using abilities that are not part of their priority, and this happens a lot less when you remove/move those abilities.

I think the only character that I found it tough to fit every ability on 2 bars was the guardian tank - there are a lot of abilities on your priority list and truck load of defensive cooldowns. When I dps on my vig, sage, pyro and smuggler I almost never hit anything but my quick keys.

There is some serious convenience with having 6 bars - you can put everything up there. Quick travels, mounts, heroic abilities, lower priority attacks, situational abilities (most have been removed), etc. But to actually play the combat portion of the game well, I think you could easily get by with 2 bars for almost all classes, and in many cases, moving an ability off the bar entirely that is not part of your priority list is a good idea until you are super comfortable with your rotation.

On the issue of quickbars - I have the feeling that having 6 bars actually is detrimental to some of the weaker players.

I don't use the 6 I have. I just use 4. All the "main" abilities go in the main bars, along with stuns, interrupts, and other things I will want to use with some regularity during a fight. The long cooldown oh-shit buttons go onto the side bars, as do all the travel and stance buttons and the between-combat recovery and class buff buttons. You're not going to change stances much, but it's nice to see them arrayed and not have to go to the power menu if I ever want to change them around.

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I think the only character that I found it tough to fit every ability on 2 bars was the guardian tank - there are a lot of abilities on your priority list and truck load of defensive cooldowns. When I dps on my vig, sage, pyro and smuggler I almost never hit anything but my quick keys.

I dunno... I had a lot of buttons as an Operative. I may only use the stabby buttons and a few of the blaster buttons, but the oh-shit buttons aren't something I want to bury in a menu. I also want my heals there, again, in case of an oh-shit. Since I was an Operative, the cover bar basically didn't exist for me, so I didn't have a place to cheat that in. Even with my Gunslinger, I don't use the cover bar... I use cover (obviously), but all that crap's in my main bar. I can tell what shading means.

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There is some serious convenience with having 6 bars - you can put everything up there. Quick travels, mounts, heroic abilities, lower priority attacks, situational abilities (most have been removed), etc. But to actually play the combat portion of the game well, I think you could easily get by with 2 bars for almost all classes, and in many cases, moving an ability off the bar entirely that is not part of your priority list is a good idea until you are super comfortable with your rotation.

And that's where I'm at. Maybe "unplayable" was too strong a term, but the convenience of having them there vs digging through a menu every time I want to activate rocket boots, my mount, or my heroic ability is not worth the trade to me. I want to enjoy myself, not drill down through their menus every 2 minutes. I also cluster the bars... all my attacks in one cluster, arranged by single target, aoe, etc. Then CCs in another. Then situationals, and oh-shits, etc. Having a dead space here and there orders my mind.

Looks like paid server transfers with 2.2 will be 1800 CC per character. That's roughly $15-20, which is a little cheaper than other games.

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I think the only character that I found it tough to fit every ability on 2 bars was the guardian tank - there are a lot of abilities on your priority list and truck load of defensive cooldowns. When I dps on my vig, sage, pyro and smuggler I almost never hit anything but my quick keys.

It depends on your AC and spec, but at cap most of them can fill up two and a half to three bars with stuff you really should have hotkeyed. There's lots of stuff you can ignore early on like interrupts, stun break, CC, click relics, stealth detection, off-spec heals, some defensive cooldowns, very situational attack abilities, class specials like the Merc ones that let you activate something without heat or turn a cast into an instant, etc. You can level without paying attention to any of that, but once you get to endgame PvE or PvP you will need to work most of it into hotkeys if you want to be the best you can. It's also very useful to keep 3-5 legacy abilities on your bars once you get them, rocket boost, the defensive cooldown, legacy orbital strike, etc. Med packs need to be hotkeyed or at least on a bar, and it's useful to keep stims there too, along with at least one speeder that's hotkeyed. I have a bunch more, like all the travel abilities, toys, some pets, etc, but those aren't strictly necessary.

Looks like paid server transfers with 2.2 will be 1800 CC per character. That's roughly $15-20, which is a little cheaper than other games.

It might be cheaper than other games, but it pretty much makes it so transferring only makes sense if you have one or two characters stuck on a server you no longer play on. That might be great for moving your trooper you leveled on Berg over to Pot5, but pretty much makes guild consolidation for Ars impossible.

I personally have 11 characters and while I could probably just redo 2 or 3 of them since they are not maxed I am not going to pay $135-$180 to transfer characters. I was really hoping to see a $40-50 entire legacy bulk option that would make it reasonable and even then I would question whether everyone in the guild would consider that price to consolidate servers.

Yeah, of course I'm sure the intent with setting that price was specifically to prevent that kind of consolidation, which would lead to lopsided servers. We're already likely to see all the serious PvPers gravitate to one now that they said cross-server queueing isn't coming in 2.4.

On the upside, moving one or two characters is not going to be a big thing, and since legacies copy and combine, that really lowers the barrier for people to switch a character or two to play with different people on different servers. I'm still hoping we will see cross-server legacy sometime soon also.

Anyway, I am still musing to try some PvP as a change of pace, let's see if I get over it. As a complete beginner without any PvP gear yet I will probably be facerolled, not sure if I'm in for that particular experience

PVP is a strange beast. There are so many factors that go into whether you get a faceroll or not, it's kind of easy to overthink it. Group composition, gear, skill are all really important.

I don't warzone very often, but do a decent amount of open world pvp and duels. In general, most people who pvp are actually kind of bad at it (just as in pve). They use stun breaks at the wrong time, don't use defensive cooldowns properly, don't carry medpacks/adrenals, don't use high priority abilities first, don't know what abilities other classes have, don't focus high priority enemies first, don't use utility abilities... etc. What they do have that you and I don't have is a lot of experience on the maps and general warzone experience as well as the ability to judge the quality of your own group and that of the opponents. So for a beginner, if you are a competent player, you may do really well one match and terrible another with little obvious reason why.

You will also get facerolled by guilds in unranked. If they are on mumble/etc they will beat you unless they are absolutely horrible. Dealing with those issues is something pvp'ers as a whole don't seem to mind. I think it is annoying as shit - having no real chance of winning a match and knowing that from the start is very frustrating. Hence my preference to stick to open world pvp during events - it's more organic and exciting - and a lot easier to retreat if you face overwhelming opposition (lol raid group). Others don't mind taking their lumps while gearing up and would say 'qq - join pvp guild'.